LAS VEGAS – Clark County officials say a group behind efforts to recall three Democratic state senators has submitted 17,465 signatures in an attempt to unseat Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports the county Registrar of Voters office received the signatures on Monday. The office has four business days to verify the signatures and make sure at least 14,412 are valid.

The signatures would then go to the secretary of state’s office for further verification.

Woodhouse in a statement called the recall effort “politically motivated” and said it is an “affront to voters and a blatant abuse of the process.”

Democrats have been fighting the recall efforts with a “Decline to sign” campaign.

The Republican-backed group is working to recall three Democratic senators in an attempt to flip the state senate to Republican control.

Critics say it's an abuse of the recall process, which is in place to root out elected officials guilty of public malfeasance. Democratic lawyers have filed a lawsuit to halt the process.

On Monday, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval told the Nevada Independent that he disagrees with the recall effort.

“There really wasn’t, I think, a legitimate reason for the recalls,” he told The Nevada Independent. “So it just kind of escalates the politics, mean-spiritedness politics. I think both parties will now use it on a regular basis, and that’s not what Nevada politics has ever been and that’s not what it should be.”